Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Man's Best Friend...

An alligator that ate a dog at Al Lopez Park on Monday has not been caught, though it was nowhere to be seen a day later.

A trapper hired by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission failed in a first attempt to snare the gator and will return until the reptile is caught, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the game commission.

On Monday morning, an alligator that stayed near a walking path past the park's South Pond grabbed a dog belonging to Sarah Frey that got too close. Morse did not know the type of dog.Emilio Lefler reached the pond moments later.

"The alligator had a dog in its mouth," Lefler said this morning. "You could see fur out the side of its mouth."

Lefler, 78, said he regularly saw the alligator either in the water a few yards from the asphalt path or sunning itself on a bank.

"That was a big alligator. When they say it was 8 feet, it was every bit of 8 feet," he said.

Guys, this park is in the city limits of Tampa, across the street from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Bucs.Assume every natural body of fresh water has a gator in it.